Deadliest day yet of pandemic
THE Department of Health reported a record number of deaths related to Covid-19 yesterday – 93, the highest single daily total seen so far over the course of the pandemic.
Of those 93 deaths, three took place in December, 89 occurred this month and one remains under investigation. The previous record high was 77 deaths, reported on April 20.
This brings the total number of deaths related to Covid to 2,708.
Meanwhile, a further 2,001 new cases of the virus were confirmed, bringing the total number of cases to 176,839.
Speaking yesterday, Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan said that while we are starting to see the early results of the restrictions currently in place, ‘we cannot afford to drop our guard against the very high levels of infection that remain in the community at present’.
The median age of those who died was 82 years old, and the ages ranged from 41 to 99. There are no newly reported deaths among healthcare workers, or in people under the age of 30.
Speaking yesterday on RTÉ’s Six One News, the Chief Clinical Officer at the HSE, Dr Colm Henry, said that given the level of infection in the community, more deaths were to be expected.
‘We see some fall-off in a peak of the cases coming through in the community but they’re still over [an average of] 3,000 cases per day in the past five days, and many of those people will become sick, many of them will require intensive care and, sadly, some of them will die,’ said Dr Henry.
He added: ‘So even if those cases peak and fall over the coming days, we’re going to see a hospital system that has never been so stretched in 11 months of this pandemic and perhaps never in a more precarious position.’
Of the new cases of Covid confirmed, there were 701 in Dublin, 204 in Cork, 102 in Waterford, 98 in Meath, 90 in Donegal and the remaining 806 were spread across all other counties.
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 dropped from 1,975 at 2pm on Monday to 1,949 at the same time yesterday. However, in those 24 hours, 100 people were admitted to hospital.
Dr Henry said hospital teams ‘have never been so stretched’.
There were 202 people with Covid19 in ICUs as of 11am yesterday, which is an increase of two from the same time on Monday.
HSE CEO Paul Reid said yesterday that ‘we’re well in surge now for critical care’ with a further 200 patients, not in ICUs, now receiving advanced respiratory support.